I am on the summit! I stand on the "cumbre" of Orizava--the mountain of the "burning star"-- more than three miles above the ocean level.

My face is turned to the east, and I look downward.

The snow, the cincture of lichens and naked rocks, the dark belt of pines, the lighter foliage of the oaks, the fields of barley, the waving maize, the thickets of yucca and acacia trees, the palm forest, the shore, the sea itself with its azure waves-- all these at a single vision! From the summit of Orizava to the shores of the Mexican Sea, I glance through every gradation of the thermal line.

I am looking, as it were, from the pole to the equator! I am alone.

My brain is giddy.